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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSA Long Walk to Water tells two parallel stories set in southern Sudan. In 1985, eleven-year-old Salva Dut is at school when gunfire erupts outside and his teacher tells the students to run into the bush, away from the villages. Salva flees alone, separated from his family, and joins a group of strangers walking east to escape the civil war between Sudan's northern government and the southern rebels. In 2008, a girl named Nya makes two round trips every day to a distant pond to haul water for her family, a grueling routine that takes most of each day. Both characters face the same desperate shortage of clean water, but the book follows each of them separately as their lives unfold across very different years.
Free Battle of the Books questions for A Long Walk to Water
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about A Long Walk to Water. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a boy wake in a barn to find his group has abandoned him?
✓ Answer
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
After the rebels take the men from his village group, Salva falls asleep in a barn. In the morning the women and children from his village have vanished without him, leaving him alone for the first time in the war.
- First half
In what book do strangers arrive in a jeep and talk with a village chief over tea?
✓ Answer
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Two men drive up in a jeep to Nya's village and are led to her uncle, the chief. They drink tea in the shade and talk about water, a conversation Nya does not yet understand but that will change her life.
- First half
In what book does a barefoot boy stub his toe on a rock and lose the whole toenail?
✓ Answer
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
In the Akobo desert, Salva's worn-out shoes fall apart and he walks barefoot. When he jams his toe on a rock and loses the whole nail, he finally breaks down crying and lags behind the group for the first time.
- Second half
In what book do villagers smash stones into gravel while a bright red drill rumbles nearby?
✓ Answer
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
As Nya's village prepares the drilling site, women haul bundles of rocks on their heads and villagers pound them into gravel to form the foundation for the well. The image shows the whole community pitching in.
- Second half
In what book do soldiers chase refugees toward a flooded river known for crocodiles?
✓ Answer
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
After the Ethiopian refugee camp is closed, soldiers force the crowd toward the swollen Gilo River along the Sudan border. Many drown, are shot, or are eaten by crocodiles while trying to cross.
- Near the end
In what book does frigid winter air feel like a slap as a boy steps out of an airport terminal?
✓ Answer
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
When Salva first walks out of the airport in New York, the cold hits his face like a slap, which he had never felt before. He had lived his whole life in places where temperatures rarely dropped below seventy.
